Rare Book Monthly
Articles - January - 2009 Issue
AE Top 500 at Auction for 2008!
Along with presidents, presidential assassins Lee Harvey Oswald and Leon Czolgosz made the Top 500.
Some assassins rate higher than others. Number 166 is a manuscript by Leon Czolgosz, assassin of President McKinley. This is particularly noteworthy as it is the final two pages of his signed confession. $110,500. At 145 is Louis Daguerre's historic description of his amazing new process - photography - from 1839. $122,500. What could be more ironic than Marx and Engels' #138 Communist Manifesto going for $126,100 capitalist dollars?
It is doubtful even the Bible is printed as often as the telephone book anymore, but the very first one from 1878, was #93 at $173,500. The pirate Henry Morgan's account of his sacking Panama went for a chilling $259,700 worth of Spanish gold at #47. Now, this takes us to the Top 10 auction prices for 2008.
10. An early 15th century illuminated Wyckiffite New Testament. $655,838.
9. The Munro copy of Shakespeare's First Folio, with a few pages in facsimile. $870,464.
8. The only known signature from Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg at the time of his famed address. Part of an autograph album. $937,000.
7. The illuminated set of San Sisto Choir Books from the 15th century. $985,875.
6. An autographed manuscript describing surrealism by Andre Breton. $1,339,145.
5. The Courtney Compendium, a collection of 14th century historical accounts, including the travels of Marco Polo. $1,405,875.
4. De revolutionibus by Copernicus, which in 1543 for the first time placed the sun at the center of the universe. $2,210,500.
3. A complete set of John Gould's folio bird books (9 books in 40 volumes). $2,458,658.
